Tutors Report On Assignment 3.

Got my Tutors Report back this week on my 3rd Assignment and was a little apprehensive about what she'd think of my work as this assignment contained first my Critical Review which if you've been reading my blog up to this point you'll understand was an area that isn't my strongest, plus the first two sections of my Major Project. Thankfully she liked a lot of what she saw, first she seems to understand the limitations of my written skills and pretty much only recommended to tidy up my bibliography which I have done. I really thought that I was going to be told that it need still a good bit of work to bring it up to standard but maybe I just need to stop being so hard on myself when it comes to written work, it isn't ever going to be the greatest and maybe it is reasonable good but then again I am doing a Photography Degree not a trying to write a best seller.
With my Major Project again she was happy with where my work is and understood that I see it still as a work in progress with areas to improve it. As it stands at this time I want to change a couple of the photos in the By Day section because as she's implied two at least don't really convey anything to the view about the place or add anything to the overall feel of the section. Plenty to keep me going as I move onto Assignment 4.


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Surprise.

Don't think I was expecting how personal a study my Major Project is beginning to become. I probably should have expected this being that it's focused on my home village but it's still surprised me by the strength of feelings that have arisen. To be honest where ever you live you don't always notice what's happening around you until you dig a little deeper below the surface and this was definitely the case with my Abandoned section I've just completed. I had some idea about how people where finding times a little harder these days because in small communities you hear rumours about how this person is struggling a bit and what someone else might be up to but I did quiet realise how bad things were getting. Its a little heart breaking in away to know how blind you've become to thinks happening right under your nose but we become so court up in our own life's that we miss these things all the time.


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Major Project Part 2- Abandoned.

For the second part of my project I wanted to look at the idea of abandonment, this may seem a little bit of a strange subject matter within a broader study of a rural village but let me explain as I go through this collection and you'll hopefully see what and where I'm coming from.

The first couple of images below are really looking at how the current hard economic times are having an effect on the village, first you have what is becoming a growing trend here and in other rural communities in that the old farmers cottages that had been lived in for years are slowly emptying and falling into disrepair as the farms go out of business and people are forced away to find work. When they do eventually if ever come up for sale they do sell pretty quick but 9 out of 10 times its to developer who pull them down and build something three times the size that know one who's lived here all there life's can ever hope to afford. In away the village is losing a bit of its history a bit at a time, this particular house my great grand parents lived in for most of there working life but now as I write this its gone.

The one thing I found that needed fixing in this shot was the fact that I hadn't managed to capture the tonal differences in the brick work so to sort this I used the Burn tool in Photoshop set to a fairly low opacity of about 25% and work over the areas until I was happy that this range capture more to its true nature.      

Tech. Details

F-stops- f/7.1

Expo- 160secs

ISO- 400

Expo. Bias- 0 steps

Focal Length- 18mm

The second photo below continues the abandoned theme nicely this time showing one of two closed down stables located in the area. What I like about this image is the very prominent sign that can be taken in one of two ways, first either it's very threatening and give the shot a ominous mood as to what would happen if you set foot in the place or secondly as a little surreal in the fact its only an abandoned yard why would you imply   the likely hood of death if you enter?

Tech. Details

F-stops- f/11

Expo- 250sec

ISO- 400

Expo Bias- 0 steps

Focal Length- 46mm

The next two photo's are a little less about how economic issues are effecting the place (although the image below does have some relevance) and more a snap shot of some of the more unusual sights I found. First what I liked about this view of a group of abandoned vehicles was the way they'd been there that long that the paint had started to fade and the undergrowth and surrounding foliage had began to grow around seemingly swallow the wheels especially in the case of the Land Rovers. To get the faded paint work to appear right it was down to the dodge tool being worked across the body work to bring out the weathered appearance while I then used the burn tool to darken the mould on the roof of the Land Rover to give it the look you see below. 

Tech. Details

F-stops- f/10

Expo- 200sec

ISO- 800

Expo Bias- 0 steps

Focal Length- 28mm

One thing that always fascinated me as a child was the many World War 2 gun positions that you could find along the banks of the River Trent near the village, even 20 years ago they'd been fairly well look after but now most have fallen down, been pulled down or as with the case here become that over grown that if you didn't know they were there you wouldn't notice them. In away its a shame because again there part of the history of the area that's being lost dew to the fact the farmers just aren't there any more to look after the land and the buildings located on them. This photo still needs a little work clearly in the top half because I used a Grad. Filter to darken the sky but unfortunately this also darken the top half of the trees. To fix this I'll   use the dodge tool it's just up to this point I haven't been happy with the results so I've include the original just so you can see what I'm taking about. 

Tech. Details

F-stops- f/10

Expo- 250sec

ISO- 800

Expo Bias- 0 steps

Focal Length- 18mm

To me this final shot is the most powerful in this section because it illustrates the problems rural communities face in a kind of haunting way. Even 5 years ago you'd like find all the pastoral land surrounding the village full of livestock but now dew to the effects of reduced income for many different reasons you see more and more of the land empty but for the feeders left behind. As with a lot of the shots in this section it very personal issues that make them work for me I just hope that they convey some of the same feelings to everyone else that looks at them too. 

Tech. Details

F-stops- f/14

Expo- 400sec

ISO- 640

Expo Bias- 0 steps

Focal Length- 41mm

I'd like to think this section is more complete then the previous one but I'm not sure that there's ways it can be still improved so I'll look forward to hearing what my tutor has to say when she's had a good look in the near future.

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Major Project Part 1- By Day (Re titled during Assignment 5 as The Village)

For the first section in my major project I chose to focus on the theme of the village by day, basically the premise was looking at the area under normal everyday conditions and seeing what aspects of it stood out. I think I need to make this point right from the start this section is very much still a work in progress, I like the photo's I've produced up to this point and the five here I'm including are some of the best but my aim is to give a feel for the place and I'm not 100% certain I've quiet achieved this yet. Coming into this project I'd done a fair bit of research on how other people had approach similar subjects (you can see this in my Major Project Planning section) and had settled on the idea of approaching it in a kind of Street Photography way with a slight surreal edge because I felt this the best way to get over the feel of the village and show the kind of place it is.

In the first photo below I wanted to convey how the village sits in the surrounding landscape and I felt this view with the power station looming on the horizon kind of work well. What I like is the contrast between the village, the open countryside and then the more industry urban area in the background. What I'd like to think this says to people is how rural are rural communities these days? 

Tech. Details

F-stops- f/5.6

Expo- 320sec

ISO- 500

Expo. Bias- 0 steps

Focal Length-  130

With the next couple of images I've really captured the more surreal side of life whether it be a strange place to collect shoes or a giant snow man outside the local pub. What I want to avoid is this project as a whole turning into something more serious then I intend, their some real powerful issues to look at in the following sections so I don't want to get to bogged down now so the more light heart I can make the subject in a couple of the sections the better the project will be in the end I hope. 

In the below image I used a little burn tool in Photoshop to bring out the wall texture, with it being very white and making up the bulk of the shot I didn't want it to feel very flat and bland but by doing this it makes it feel far more real and part of the whole.

Tech. Details

F-stops- f/10

Expo- 250sec

ISO- 400

Expo. Bias- 0 steps

Focal Length- 27mm

The question you might ask is how to you build a snowman that tall, well the answer a little bit of a mystery but I'd guess it has something to do with a few pints on a snowy evening and no one being in a hurry to go home on a Saturday night. As a point of fact the next day the top was taken out of it for health and safety reasons, what a world we live in today.

Tech. Details

F-stops- f/8

Expo- 160sec

ISO- 400

Expo Bias- 0 steps

Focal Length- 55mm

The last two photos in this part are the ones that I feel could do with be changed because they don't really add anything to the section, the first below is just a simple village view I suppose with a little bit of a surreal angle to it with the antique sign being located on the clearly old building. Also there's a contrast between the old and the new but for me it's just lacking a bit of something to make it special. You're probably asking well why include it if you're not going to use it at the end of the day? Well the simple answer is it still captures the make and landscape of the village so in that respect it works but just not really well with the other shots. 

Tech Details

F-stops- f/14

Expo- 500sec

ISO- 640

Expo Bias- 0 steps

Focal Length- 28mm

The final shot does fit in more with the others in this collection but again there's just something that makes it grate in my mind. I think its possibly the way the tree branches intrude to far into the frame but what I do like  is the way the child's horse toy seems to be looking into the village drawing your eye in this general direction. Again if in the future I capture a better scene I'd replace this image without a shadow of a doubt but for now it stays. 

Tech. Details

F-stops- f/9

Expo- 200sec

ISO- 500

Expo Bias- 0 steps

Focal Length- 24mm

For my first section I'm fairly happy with what I've achieved there's some good images and I'd say it does give an interesting snap shot of the place. One think you might have noticed is the lack of people in any of the photo's here and there is a reasons for this. First I have a whole section to come on this subject but secondly because during the day the place can seem pretty much empty of life dew to the fact very few people actually work and live here, it's a very much ageing community and anyone below the age of retirement has to work every god given hour to afford to live here in the first place. In away I'm one of the luck ones I haven't left yet but like everyone else my age in time I'll have to leave too.

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Dodge and Burn.

Because I'm going to be working in Black and White for my project I wanted to look at the Dodge and Burn tool in Photoshop a little closer as it can help me more then anything else with my work in this style. Luckily for me there's plenty of websites out there that can help me to understand how to get the best out of these tools and below are the ones I found most useful.

1. http://www.dpchallenge.com/tutorial.php?TUTORIAL_ID=30
2. http://www.photographyblackwhite.com/dodge-burn-overdoing/
3. http://www.ilfordphoto.com/aboutus/page.asp?n=121
4. http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/dodging-and-burning-techniques-photoshop/

The majority of stuff you can read on these sites is pretty similar but still its good to have more then one source to refer to when trying out a tool that you haven't used alot before, you may disagree but this is how I find it best to work. When experimenting with the dodge/burn tool I found it quiet easy to get to grips with an in fact its more useful then you think especially with black and white images because it allows you to easily correct exposure issues you might have had trouble with at the time of shooting, for example with some of the images I tried it out on I could lighten or darken the shadows without effecting the rest of the shot. Great tool I definitely be using in the future.

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Fay Godwin.

Looking through Fay Godwin's work today for a bit of inspiration regarding my Major Project, she's one of them photographers that I find I can always turn to if I find myself a little stuck creatively. I think we all have peoples work that naturally makes us feel more comfortable with what we're doing or helps us to be more creative and move in a different direction and she just happens to be mine. When I first started flicking through her work I didn't think that I'd find alot that related back to what I'm doing with my major project but actually on a second look I might have been a bit quick to judge. For example look at these photos below.

These photos are just a small selection of the work I think that can help me with my own project because in each case they capture a part of life be it in a surreal manner or a more documentary approach but they all help in my mind to produce a picture of life during the late 70's early 80's (which is when she took them). Like all good black and white work there's a good tonal range and high levels of detail. She was describe as being Britain's answer to Ansel Adams her work was that well thought of, she did use her work in a similar way to him as well fighting for the right to open the countryside to the ramblers. Anyway I'm getting a bit off track here, how is her work helping me? Easy it's making me really look closely at my subject maybe more at the little things that make up the place instead of the grander landscape and how it sits in it.

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